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Archive for October 2006
By Bill Kristoph
Invent a quarterback controversy.
Seminole football coaches broke out the mother of all “let’s divert attention away from us” strategies Saturday night at Maryland. The ‘Noles started Xavier Lee at quarterback. According to reports, Drew Weatherford had tendinitis in his ankle and could not play. Well, he could play, but only if really necessary. Or maybe he could play if Lee didn’t play well. How bad was the injury? The coaches and reporters never clarified.
Perhaps I watched a little too much X-Files in high school and college. But something smells like conspiracy here, given recent QB changes at FSU. Remember when Adrian McPherson took over for Chris Rix due to Rix’s “high ankle sprain” and when Wyatt Sexton took over for the same reason? Both times Rix was deemed as able to play, in necessary. Why don’t the coaches admit that they felt a changing of the guard was needed to spark the team, instead of hiding behind a reason that “forced them” to make the change? The story gets even fishier when Weatherford’s remarks about the coaching staff early last week are taken into account.
The answer lies in the the title of this post. What better way to take the heat off of play calling and coaching than to divert Seminole fans’ attention with a nice little quarterback controversy. The message board posts all over the net are talking about it. The Tallahassee Democrat’s sportswriters are certainly happy to talk about it. It’s the headline over on Warchant.com today. Media around the state (not nationally, where the ‘Noles are hardly talked about anymore) are writing the same stories. It’s a little convenient for FSU coaches.
On Saturday night, Xavier Lee put on a solid performance. He has a cannon of an arm, and if his receivers could catch, the ‘Noles might have pulled out the victory. Xavier also showed his scrambling ability, which helps when the FSU offensive line continues to block like their counterparts on the Dallas Cowboys. He showed that his natural ability is likely better than Weatherford’s. Coming from a huge Weatherford support, I’m even willing to admit that Lee might be the better option down the road. But, the play calling wasn’t much better. Special Teams made game-costing mistakes and the defense, yet again, showed their youth and lack of depth thanks to tons of injuries. Lee, like Weatherford, will not do this on his own.
Take a look at the message boards around the internet. A lot of optimism returned to FSU fans. One fan even pointed out that Weatherford’s record is 12-7 and that “just isn’t acceptable.” 12-7 is not bad, it is not 15 years of AP poll dominance good either. Perhaps ‘Nole fans need to understand that they are not entitled to 1-loss seasons every year and that they were part of something very special during the 90’s. Then again, perhaps the FSU coaching staff should take a look in the mirror and regain their fire for coaching, recruiting and winning.
And before anyone crowns a new starter, or lays blame to Drew Weatherford let’s remember one fact: As of this moment, Lee is 0-1.
1. Congratulations to Maryland on becoming bowl eligible. For FSU fans however many are asking right now “What is this thing called bowl eligible of which you speak?”
2. It must have come as a big surprise to Greg Carr when Kirk Herbstreit said during the Gameday show that “Carr is not playing in this game.” Darn good impersonation by whoever caught that 15 yard TD pass. Amazing how he made himself look 6’7”.
3. After showing numerous shots of what was said to be Jeff Bowden in the press box
calling plays, memo to ESPN: Get a FSU media guide. Either that or Bowden found a dadgum good Darryl Dickey mask just in time for Halloween.
4. Upon seeing Graham Gano about to kickoff with one of those hoods as if it was blizzard-like conditions with a wind-chill of minus 10 in College Park, Mrs. BFT made the observation “kickers are delicate”.
5. Memo to Maryland fans who booed your team for taking a knee to end the first half: You obviously did not see the FSU/Boston College game last week.
6. Congratulations to FSU’s offensive line for fixing the low snap problem and replacing that with perfecting the false start.
7. Bobby Bowden quoted former Buffalo Bills head coach Marv Levy saying that a coach that listens to his fans (complaints) will be sitting with them. Just a guess, there are probably some that wouldn’t sit Bowden him right about now.
8. From PT Willis during the pre-game show: “I don’t see us lining up and running it 40 times.” FSU’s total rushing attempts: 34. Guess he meant 34. But not 40.
9. After Lawrence Timmons planted Maryland QB Sam Hollenback on a sack with 11:41
left, there is no truth to the rumor that Hollenback was heard to say “Where am I? What place is this?”
10. From Gene Deckerhoff after Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen called a second time out prior to Gary Cismesia’s 46 yard field goal attempt: “There are not many days where you get to say the Fridge will put more ice on the kicker”.
Bonus Horribly Random and Frighteningly Meaningless Thoughts
11. Memo to the guy at ESPN’s Gameday who was holding the sign that read “I dated a girl from Tennessee”: And college football fans would be interested in your love life why?
12. Congratulations to Duke for getting its offense on track by scoring a season high 28 points. Unfortunately however Vandy scored 45.
13. So should it now be called the “World’s Largest Outdoor Non-Alcoholic Party”? , Surely by eliminating the old name no one was drinking right?
14. After Notre Dame defeated Navy for the 43rd straight time, does that even qualify as a rivalry anymore?
15. Key stat from the Clemson/Georgia Tech game Thursday night: 10 three play and out drives for the Tigers. And they couldn’t do that back on Sept 16th?
16. For FSU fans it could be worse. It could be like Temple ending a 20 game losing streak.
Just a bit of site news… I’ve had to disable the post ratings. They are messing with Googlebot’s functionality, and I’d like ScalpEm to be indexed properly.
By Bill Kristoph
Thanks to Chili and the 12thManChild for getting their picks in on time this week.
1. Ohio State (100)
2. Michigan (94)
3. Texas (89)
3. USC (89)
5. West Virginia (86)
6. Louisville (79)
7. Auburn (77)
8. Clemson (70)
9. Florida (65)
10. Tennessee (64)
11. Notre Dame (60)
12. California (57)
13. Arkansas (54)
14. Boise State (43)
15. LSU (36)
15. Wisconsin (36)
17. Rutgers (31)
18. Boston College (28)
19. Texas A&M (27)
20. Nebraska (25)
21. Missouri (23)
22. Wake Forest (19)
23. Oklahoma (15)
24. Oregon (14)
25. Georgia Tech (11)
Others receiving votes: Washington State (6), Georgia (1), BYU (1)
By Bill Kristoph
Another home loss. Another poor showing of unity by FSU fans. Another oddly-called offensive game. Another solid second-half performance by the banged up defense. Seminole fans had better realize that the problems with FSU football are real, and they won’t change any time soon. Welcome to the era of loyalty and golden years for Coach Bobby Bowden. The ‘Noles are at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, and their only chance of being on top is to imitate the chimps in the Careerbuilder.com commercial. (Hint: It’s linked to their website just for you Jeffery.)
I’m not angry as a fan anymore. I’ve grown up as a Jets fan and Mets fan, so part of me feels that a lot of ‘Noles are just spoiled and whiney, but watching a football dynasty continue to fall is painful. On top of that, the black uniforms made FSU look like a high school team. On second thought, that’s appropriate. Someone should tell Nike that it is very hard to read garnet numbers on a black jersey from the stands.
Anyway, it’s on to better and brighter topics from the B.C. game…
We had an invasion of Oregon Ducks (above) in my section. What is up with that? Did these guys take a wrong turn somewhere? On top of that, a young woman next to them was wearing garnet fishnet stockings with her skirt and top. I wouldn’t recommend that to any other ladies out there, especially when it’s 85 degrees. Perhaps the Ducks invaded because the proposed “blackout” would have made them highly visible. As you can see from the picture it failed miserably aside from the student section. Or, maybe it’s a political statement about FSU football being a dead duck. Either way, it was strange.
On top of that, the FSU band decided to play karoke favorites at halftime. I’ve spent a couple of Saturdays at different karaoke places in Tallahassee, and I’ve never heard anyone sing any of the choices the band made: Rock ‘N’ Roll All Nite, You Give Love A Bad Name and Sweet Caroline. It’s bad enough to go out knowing I’m going to hear bad singing, but when one of the Eastern Michigan crew that sometimes sits with me broke out with her own version of Sweet Caroline, I had to cringe. No, Denise’s singing wasn’t all that bad, (it went something to the effect of Sweeeeeeet Carrrrrolineeee… hmm hmmm hmmm… you uh… hmm ::pause:: hmmm ::pause:: hmm hmm Sweeeeeet Carrrrrrolineeeeee) but suddenly I felt like I was no longer in Doak Campbell Stadium and was in some nightmare, stranded in Chestnut Hill listening to B.C.’s rendition of the song. Hey band, next time don’t pick anything that is a tradition of the opposing team. Mmmkay? And to give a bit of credit to EMU crew, they pointed out it might have been a bright idea to put the words up on the videoboard while the band was playing.
In tailgating food news… the Boston Brown Bread I made went over well. It will be heading into the Thanksgiving tradition I liked it so much. Too bad I forgot some sort of sweet butter.
And finally… one positive note. FSU went out of their way to honor the Seminole tribe. Even if the FSU black jerseys are a Nike ploy to make some extra cash from an alternate uniform. One member of the tribe, a student at FSU, was given Chief Osceola’s Spear to plunge into the midfield logo before the game. It’s a rare event that someone other than Osceola does that, and it was great to see an actual Seminole Tribe Member do it. Hopefully more events and recognition like this can be created. Anyone associated with FSU owes it to the Seminole Tribe for continued support of the use of their name.
One other FYI, the Maryland game is set for 7pm on ESPN2 next weekend.
1. At least FSU wore appropriate colors for yesterday’s game.
2. Well at least the Seminole Tribe can claim it is unconquered.
3. After yesterday’s loss, there is a bright side for Bobby Bowden. He won’t have to answer this question the rest of the season. “Coach, what do you think your chances are of making the ACC Championship game this year?
4. That last snap for FSU on 4th down would have been good. If Drew was two feet tall that is.
5. Memo to Joslin Shaw from Graham Gano: Downing the punt one yard and one inch from the goal line was not going to hurt my punting average that much. Trust me; I would not have been upset if you had.
6. With the inadvertent TV blackout in Tallahassee, just a guess that when the game finally came on and upon seeing that 21-10 score many area residents were probably wishing for that Michigan/Iowa game to come back on.
7. Most interesting quote from Boston College head coach Tom O’Brien (right at halftime): “We have to play better or we’re not going to win this game.” Uh coach, two words, scoreboard.
8. Best (or worst depending of course on your POV) description of Drew Weatherford’s pass intercepted by Dejaun Tribble for a touchdown: From Gene Deckerhoff, “Instead of a hitch (pattern), it was a twitch.”
9. Maybe this will make it better. Turn the Atlantic Division standings upside down and viola’, we’re in first place. Does that help?
10. For a season that started out positively by beating Miami that descended into “at least we beat Miami” has slid to “at least we beat Duke”. Does THAT help?
Bonus Depressingly Random and More Depressingly Meaningless Thoughts
11. If you missed Bobby Bowden’s call-in show Thursday night you missed the caller who felt the need to yell “GO GATORS!!” and promptly hung up. Deckerhoff responded appropriately, “That must happen only after a week when they lose.”
12. Sign seen at ESPN’s Gameday: “I need a date”. That person must have been too cheap to fork out the money for E-Harmony.
13 Upon seeing the Clemson uniforms one could only think that Jimmy Hendrix and Prince were very pleased. Man that was waaaaaaaaay too much purple.
14. Best response to the most inane question of the day: In responding to Lisa Salters poignant question “What happened on that last field goal” Mack Brown described it perfectly by saying “I think we kicked it short”.
15. The last 5:35 of the Texas/Nebraska game took 37 minutes to play. Had the entire game been played at that rate it would have been a six hour game. And here I thought the new clock rules were designed to speed up the game. Silly me.
I’m not in the mood to post about the actual game… B.C. beat the ‘Noles. Fans need to realize that FSU is staring a 7-5 season in the face.
More tomorrow… but about fun things like Oregon fans and girls that sing Sweet Caroline.
P.S. Refresh the site a couple of times and it will return to it’s normal theme instead of the blackout.
1. Ohio State (75)
2. Michigan (72)
3. Texas (66)
4. USC (64)
5. West Virginia (63)
6. Louisville (62)
7. Tennessee (58)
8. Auburn (56)
9. Notre Dame (50)
10. Clemson (48)
11. Georgia Tech (44)
12. Florida (42)
13. California (39)
14. Boise State (34)
15. LSU (32)
16. Arkansas (31)
17. Nebraska (25)
18. Oregon (21)
19. Boston College (20)
20. Rutgers (20)
21. Wake Forest (16)
22. Wisconsin (14)
23. Oklahoma (6)
24. Missouri (5)
24. Texas A&M (5)
Others receiving votes: Pittsburgh (3), Iowa (2), Georgia (1)
By Bill Kristoph
On Saturday, October 21, Florida State University will unveil two items that honor the Seminole Tribe. The first, a statue of a Seminole family on the legacy walk, is a welcome addition to the Doak Campbell Stadium area. That idea is approved by almost anyone associated with the Seminole Tribe or FSU. The second addition, however, has 50% approval rating at best. For the first time, the Seminoles will wear an all black uniform when they take on the Boston College Eagles. The uniform, designed by Nike and approved by FSU, features the word “Seminoles” down one pant leg and “Unconquered” down the other. In addition, an effort by the local merchandising companies, students and fans to make the game a “blackout” has been met with disdain by plenty of fans.
Some of the arguments:
“But it’s a 3:30 kickoff. You can’t do a blackout during the day.”
“I’m not supporting Nike, since they’re messing with tradition.”
“If they really wanted this to be special they should donate the proceeds to the Seminole Tribe.”
“Our colors are Garnet and Gold, not black.”
“We’re not Oregon, we don’t mess with our traditional uniforms.”
“I’m wearing white to protest this and to protest the coaches.”
From Coach Bobby Bowden, “I’d rather they wear garnet or gold.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. This is an opportunity to show the players and recruits that our fanbase isn’t the whining, sniveling, spoiled, Gator-like people that they’ve been acting like for last couple of weeks. A blackout looks just as good at 3:30 as it does at 7:30 (see the South Carolina blackout from a few years ago). It’s the unity behind the color, stupid. I’d understand if it was the first weekend of September and a day game, but the high for Saturday is 79 and the gametime temperature is around 75. As for not supporting Nike, then don’t buy a Nike shirt. Buy one of the other tee shirts and support a local vendor while you’re at it. The licensing fees go back to FSU, which helps the university and athletic programs. While it’s true that FSU’s primary colors are garnet and gold, black is a trim color. Nike didn’t go and design a uniform that has nothing to do with FSU. Plus, black is one of the primary colors in the Seminole Tribe’s flag. And to those who argue tradition, even Michigan has added gold piping to the uniforms over the years, USC brightened up the colors when Pete Carroll arrived and Notre Dame wears green jerseys once in a blue moon. As long as the black uniforms aren’t more than once per year, what is the big deal?
And to any Seminole fan that wears white, intentionally protesting the coaches, players, school, black jerseys or whatever, you don’t get it. People that do that type of thing, in front of a national audience are idiots. I’m all for writing T.K. or Coach Bowden or whoever else might listen to criticism, but change won’t come because you wore white to a game and didn’t support the players. By wearing black, everyone can show that Seminole fans are behind the players. Someone should clue Coach Bowden into that fact. If anyone needs support right now, it’s him.
P.S. - ScalpEm.com has decided to support the team by also sporting a black theme through the B.C. Game. The site will return to normal next week. If you are having problems browsing the site, either clear your browser cache or refesh the site a couple of times.
1. Everyone Seminole fan has to certainly be disappointed with results of this weekend. We’re speaking of course of Kimberly Barksdale’s second place finish in the Athlon Sideline Spirit contest. But hey, we beat Duke!!
2. Bet you never expected to hear Monk Bonasorte utter these works in a FSU pre-game show. “You hate to say this, but this is a must win game.”
3. With FSU leading 37-17 at the end of three quarters, there was even better news. FSU still had all three of its timeouts!! Someone must have lost that memo from the first quarter where all timeouts must be burned long before the end of the game.
4. Memo to Chris Davis (after fumbling yet another ball away): Maybe some superglue on the gloves would be in order?
5. With Duke going backwards on one drive in the second half, it’s just a guess, a wild guess mind you, that Gene Deckerhoff was exaggerating juuuuuuuuuuuust a tad when he said “it’s third down and million”.
6. On Sun Sports’ post game show Keith Jones, commenting on Lawrence Timmons’ fumble return for a touchdown, said how important that was to “take the home crowd out of it quickly”. With the home crowd mostly comprised of empty seats that probably wasn’t too difficult a task.
7. Prior to the game, the Duke band broke into an 11 on 11 scrimmage. Surely Duke head coach Ted Roof wasn’t considering putting those guys in was he? Maybe the Duke football team could be them. Maybe.
8. Help wanted: Football players with an emphasis on the defensive skills. Experience not required (because we’ll take just about anything at this point that isn’t limping). Positions available immediately. Inquire at the Florida State football office.
9. For the third straight year, FSU met Duke following a Seminole loss. Got to figure that Duke were big fans of FSU versus NC State ten days ago.
10. On today’s FSU highlight show, Deckerhoff mentioned that there was no TV for this game and that there would be a lot of audio clips from the radio booth with the video highlights Deckerhoff and Willis I must say did a darn good impersonation of Paul Kennedy and Jones.
Bonus Decidedly Random and Assuredly Meaningless Thoughts
11. Kirk Herbstreit commented during the Boston College/VT game “that BC doesn’t like to get into third and long”. Question for Kirk, and there are teams that do?????
12. After being pummeled 52-7 by Pitt on Friday the 13th it’s obvious that UCF broke a lot mirrors and walked underneath a lot of ladders.
13. Best comment on UCF’s first half debacle: From the guys back in the TV studio, “Pittsburgh has fallen perfectly into UCF’s game plan allowing them to score at will before they start cramping up”.
14. After Missouri took a delay of game penalty moving the FG attempt back to the 12 yard line, the TV commentators said “there’s a lot of coaching going on”. When Mizzou coaches called for a fake and tried to run it from those 12 yards out one could only think there’s a lot of dumb coaching going on.
15. I don’t know why and can’t explain it, but for some reason I wanted to do something today I never do. I watched the gatros (their …) aka crocs of XXVI highlight show on Sun Sports today. Got to say I found it enjoyable.
Robert on 
Spartan on 